Deep Tissue Massage

I went to a deep tissue massage at Savera Hotel today. What a relaxing experience! At first, I was a bit skeptical since I was taken to a regular hotel room that was converted in to a massage room, but my anxiety diminished immediately after the massage began. I had a full one hour massage (although I was told later that to experience the full effect of massage, it takes at least two hours, preferably three hours...) and came back out all refreshed! India is amazing because all this is about Rs 800 (about $16) :)

Mosquitos are back!!! (along with other insects...)

Normally, the monsoon does not reach Chennai this time of year (or so I've heard), but for some reason, we've been getting occasional rains recently. With the arrival of rains, the mosquitoes are coming back!!! I just realized my legs and arms are full (well not really, but it does feel like it) of mosquito bites! Ahhh... irritating but patience, patience. I also realized that there are more insects around - just today, I saw small ants crawling on our bed sheets!! Where did they come from? Why are they there??? It is a fresh new sheet that were cleaned and placed there last night. My dad thinks that the world will be conquered by yogurt bacteria (In India, we make yogurt at home and the culture is passed on for a long time - from the old batch to the new batch). I honestly think the world will be conquered by ants! The ants here are so resilient here - they bite in to plastic bags to get to the food that they want to eat, they somehow find food in places that we did not even know about, and even without food (like today's example) they find things that they want in odd places...

Theatre Fest

Arvind and I have been going to plays at Metro Plus Theare Fest 2009 (http://www.hindu.com/theatrefest/whois.htm). We purchased tickets for all the shows. So far, we saw Antigone, Chicago and Hamlet. To be honest, we were not very impressed with any of the shows so far. Antigone was too slow and dull. Chicago was dragging and the stage crew (especially mike and lighting) were making things worse. Hamlet was like a slap stick comedy show in school-level cultural festivals. While the shows did not live up to our expectations, we were pleasantly surprised at the music performances that were going on outside of the theatre. The ambiance was nice (a bit like outdoor concerts in Ithaca!) and the music was also good (jazz, fusion, even some genre of their own creation - Indian eclectic trip music, etc). We had a great time overall - we went to some cute bakery cafes (for me) and chaat places (for Arvind) for evening snack, hang out, chilled out, etc, etc... We had a great weekend!

Shiva and Parvati

I just came back from a film screening and discussion of a German/English documentary called "The Legend of Shiva and Parvati." (http://www.shiva-parvati-film.de/) It was a documentary about how a German hippie woman and an Indian yogi fell in love and got married to start a family life. Their son who grew up in Germany made this film about his parents as his graduation project for his film studies. Basically the film was a collage of interviews who knew his parents and old pictures that gave a glimpse of how it was when his parents were young. It was a very interesting film - all the people who were interviewed were very unique (and quirky!!) which made the film very interesting. I was surprised to find so many people at the theatre!!! What are they all doing on a weekday morning?!!

First day at home!

Wow..., what a luxury to be at home and chill out when everyone else is working! But I decided to be a good wife (at least when I can) and made some sambar and vegetable curries for Arvind :) As it turns out, they came out good and authentic, so I am pleased about that. I actually wanted to go for a spa today (as a treat from Arvind), but our driver did not show up (it seems he had some family emergencies) so I had to forgo this plan till maybe later on this week. But I did all the other things I wanted to do... went to my Tamil lesson (this would be difficult!), did some yoga, read books and newspapers, etc. I hope I can finish all the things I had planned for myself before I go back to Japan in Sep!

Brunch at La Boulangerie Cafe

This weekend is the first weekend after I am completely free (from work)! Today being the Sunday, I decided that it would be nice to go for Sunday brunch at a cafe that recently opened near by. It is actually a cafe that is operated by a bakery that I really like in another area, so it was a pleasant surprise when I heard that they will open a cafe near our place. As expected, it was a nice cute little place and we had a really nice brunch. After the delicious meal of club sandwich and tomato pasta, I became greedy and ordered two desserts (kiwi and grape tarte and apple pie). All the food was great and I had a wonderful time there. Thanks Arvind!

Dinner at Bella Ciao's

Suddenly, I wanted to have some good Italian food so Arvind took me to Bella Ciao's where I heard was a good place to go. It was a bit difficult to spot, but it turned out to be a nice place :) It was quiet since we went on a weekday night but the food was good - we ordered broccoli and asparagus brick oven pizza and mushroom ravioli for dinner and tiramisu and apple tarte for dessert. All my selection, as always :) The food was NOT Indianized at all and we enjoyed them a lot. After we came out satisfied, we spotted La Boulangerie, one of the bakeries that I like very much here, right next door, so we bought some quiche to go before going home. It was a really nice food outing that we did after a long time!

Note: I am seriously looking in to the menu to decide what to eat! Due to this intense concentration, I made the right decisions in the choice of food :)

Many things happened from then till now...

It seems it has been several months since I updated my blog I did not realize it was that long... but many things changed since then. First and foremost, I resigned from my job. Things were not turning out the way I was comfortable with at work, so instead of wasting my precious time in India, I've decided to quit and enjoy my time here. Afterall, we're only going to be in India for a couple more years anyway. I have many things on my to-do-list: learn Tamil, become a yoga instructor, learn kalari (Indian martial arts), read books, go to spas, go to music concerts, do some consultancy work, write research papers, etc, etc. Let's see how much of these I can get my hands on :)